Chair-seat



(No Model.)

M. V. B. HOWE.

GHAIR SEAT. W No. 290,884. Patented Dec. 25, 1888.

UNITE STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MARTIN V. B. HOWE, OF ERVING, MASSACHUSETTS.

CHAIR-SEAT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 290,884, dated December 25, 1883.

Application filed June 13, 1883 (No model.)

and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, a citizen of the United States, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Doweling Chair- Seats and other Articles of Furniture, of which the following is a full and true specification.

My invention relates to that class of chairseats made from wood, varying in width from fourteen to twenty-two inches, and commonly made of two or more pieces of plank, jointed and put together with glue, and afterward shaped into the desired form of aseat. These are very often split apart, sometimes at the glued joints, owing to imperfect gluing or from the glue being softened by dampness or wet, and sometimes at other points, often caused by carelessness in packing, handling, and transportation. To prevent this a common way is to insert in each of the front and rear edges of the seat a thin slip of wood, called a spline, let into the whole width of the seat by a slot sawed in, and glued in place. Strips are also glued and fastened otherwise across the edges and around the seats, as in Heywoods and in Winchesters patents.

In my drawings, Figure l is a bottom view of the seat, showing the dowels, &c. Fig. 2 is a section on line x x of Fig. 1.

Similar reference-letters indicate like parts in both figures.

My invention accomplishes the same result in a cheaper way and much more effectively, by doweling the seat through from side to side.

one edge of the seat to the other, I remove 5 the wood on the under side of the seat to within a space of from one or two inches in width from the outside edges by cutting a slot, b, across the seatone of said dowels just back of the front legs and another of said dowels 0 just forward of the back legsfor about twothirds the thickness of the seat. From each outside edge a hole is bored through into the slot, and the dowel then driven in from one side through the slot and the other edge.

Each end of the dowel has driven into it a thin wedge, and the chair-seat is entirely and thoroughly protected from being split or coming apart at the glued joints.

For the smaller and cheaper chairs one slot through the middle may be sufficient.

I also propose in some cases to cut away all the under side of the seat, leaving arim around the whole circumference of from one to two inches in width. In this latter way of proceeding, the seat may be left quite thin and much lightened by small perforations through it, if desired.

This same device will be applicable and very useful in fastening together table and desk tops and other articles of furniture where a W long dowel is desired.

IVhat I claim, and desire to secure byl ters Patent, is

A solid wooden chair-seat formed of one or more pieces of wood, provided on its under side with open channels or grooves extending through the middle portion of the seat, and connected to the edges of the seat by bores or openings penetrating the body of the seat, but closed at bottom and top, and dowels or pins inserted from side to side of the seat through the bores and channels, as set forth.

MARTIN V. B. HOWE.

Witnesses:

JAMES S. GRINNELL, WM. H. ALLEN. 

